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Cabin Fever
Cabin Fever is a 2002 american horror film about a virus that spreads to the cabin that five college students are staying in. Plot A hermit walking in the woods comes across his dog. He tries to get the dog's attention, but the dog is dead due to a bloody infection, and the hermit is sprayed with infected blood. Five college students, Paul, Karen, Marcy, Jeff, and Burt, take a vacation to a remote cabin in the woods to celebrate the start of spring break. Jeff and Marcy are in a physical relationship, while Paul is trying to get childhood friend Karen to sleep with him. Upon their visit to a local convenience store, they meet an unusual boy named Dennis, who has a tendency to bite people, and a store owner who has a rifle he is keeping for "niggers". When the five get to the cabin, Jeff and Marcy have sex and Paul and Karen go for a swim. Meanwhile, Burt goes out to shoot squirrels with his rifle, but ends up shooting the hermit, now disfigured and bloody. The hermit flees, but Burt does not tell anyone about the incident. That night, the friends gather around a campfire, where they are joined by a friendly drifter named Justin, who prefers to be called Grimm, and his angry dog, Dr. Mambo. After they share some marijuana, it starts to rain, so Grimm leaves with his dog to pack up his stuff. While the friends wait for Grimm indoors, the hermit returns, in a much worse state than before and begging for help. Burt shuts the door on the sick hermit, who then tries to steal the group's car, while vomiting blood all over it. When the hermit threatens Marcy and Karen, Paul accidentally sets the hermit on fire while trying to ward him off. The group looks for help the next day. Jeff and Burt find a helpful neighbor, but leave when they find out she's the dead hermit's cousin. To make matters worse, a savage dog, perhaps Dr. Mambo, begins harassing the group. Paul later gets assistance from police Deputy Winston, who promises to send up a tow truck, but in the meantime encourages Paul to have a good time and party. Paul goes on to comfort Karen, who is upset over the killing of the hermit. After he calms her down, it appears Paul is finally going to have sex with her, but when he goes to touch her, he discovers a massive bloody infection on her thigh. The group isolates her in a shed outside of the cabin. After fixing the truck, Burt begins coughing up blood, revealing he is infected, but does not tell the others. After Karen pukes up blood on the truck, Jeff takes the group's remaining beer and leaves. Burt goes back to the convenience store to get help, but incurs the wrath of Dennis's father after inadvertently infecting Dennis with the disease when Dennis bites him. Showing more signs of infection, Burt flees, chased by Dennis's father and two friends. After moving Karen back to the shed, Marcy convinces Paul to have unprotected sex with her. Shortly after, Paul leaves to find help and look for Jeff. A depressed Marcy, who develops infected sores on her back during sex with Paul, takes a shower, crying when her skin starts to fall off while shaving her legs. She later goes outside, where she is killed by Dr. Mambo. Meanwhile, Paul discovers the dead body of the hermit floating in a reservoir, revealing the infection has been spreading through the drinking water. After racing back to the cabin, Paul finds Dr. Mambo feeding on Karen. After killing Dr. Mambo with Burt's gun, Paul puts Karen out of her misery by beating her to death with a shovel. A dying Burt later returns to the cabin, still pursued by Dennis's father and his two companions. Burt is shot by the posse, who in turn are killed by Paul, who then sets out to find Jeff. After finding the dismembered body of Grimm and discovering early signs that he is infected, Paul takes the group from the convenience store's truck and hits a deer, covering him in blood. He later reunites with Deputy Winston, who is partying with underage drinkers. After Winston is radioed about several infected people in a cabin going on a killing spree, Paul attacks and infects several of Winston's friends before knocking Winston out. Paul is later picked up by a passing truck and dropped off at a hospital. There, he is interrogated about the virus, but he cannot provide any response. The sheriff tells Winston to "take care" of Paul. Paul tries to warn Winston about the drinking water by saying "water..." but Winston only responds by dumping him at the edge of a creek. The next day, Jeff, who has been hiding out and drinking in the woods, returns to the cabin. Initially crying after seeing the remains of his friends, he later becomes ecstatic upon realizing he is the only one who made it. As he raises his arms in victory, he is gunned down by several police officers, who burn his body along with the others. Back at the convenience store, a couple of children are selling lemonade that they have made with water from the creek Paul was dumped in. In addition, a large truck, filled with bottles of water taken from the creek, can be seen leaving the store. The film ends with several African-Americans entering the convenience store. The store owner grabs the rifle and then hands it to them, revealing he was only polishing it up for them and that they are good friends. Cast The Students *Rider Strong as Paul, who grew up with Karen and has a crush on her, although they have never been in a relationship. He contracts the disease fourth, by having unprotected sex with Marcy who was already infected. Paul returns briefly in Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. *James DeBello as Burt, a vulgar practical joker. He contracts the disease third, by drinking a glass of infected water, though he is the second student to show symptoms. *Jordan Ladd as Karen, a young woman who has known Paul for many years. She is the first student to contract the disease and is quarantined in the toolshed for much of the movie. *Cerina Vincent as Marcy, a young woman who is in a relationship with Jeff at the beginning of the film. She contracts the disease second, from a cup of tea. She later has a sexual affair with Paul, unwittingly infecting him in the process. *Joey Kern as Jeff, a self-centered young man who is Marcy's boyfriend. He avoids getting the disease thanks to a bet he made with Burt to only drink beer for the whole vacation and is consequently the only student not to get infected. Secondary characters *Arie Verveen as Henry "The Hermit", the first human shown catching the disease (which he catches from his dead dog) and patient zero in the outbreak. He infects the local water supply by falling in the reservoir. *Giuseppe Andrews as Deputy Winston Olsen, a deputy for the local sheriff's office. Winston appears as a lead character in the sequel. *Matthew Helms as Dennis, a mentally-disabled boy who bites strangers without provocation. He contracts the disease when he bites (infected) Bert and is last seen in a critical condition in hospital. *Eli Roth as Justin "Grimm", a fellow camper in the woods. *Hal Courtney as Tommy, Dennis's father. Other characters *Robert Harris as Old Man Cadwell, who mans the counter at the nearby market. *Richard Boone and Tim Parati as Fenster and Andy, Tommy's friends. *Brandon Johnson as Ray Shawn Production Writing Eli Roth co-wrote Cabin Fever with friend and former NYU roommate Randy Pearlstein in 1995 while Roth was working as a production assistant for Howard Stern's Private Parts. Early attempts to sell the script were unsuccessful because studios felt that the horror genre had become unprofitable. In 1996, the film Scream was released to great success, leading studios to once again become interested in horror properties. Roth still could not sell his script, as studios told him that it should be more like Scream. Many potential financiers also found the film's content to be unsettling, including not only the gore but also the use of the word "nigger" early in the film. Roth was inspired to write the script based on his own experience with a skin infection he transmitted while traveling abroad. Various elements of the script were inspired by Roth's favorite horror films, including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Last House on the Left (1972), and The Evil Dead (1981). Casting The auditions for the character of Marcy had been scheduled to take place on September 11, 2001. The scene the producers had chosen for the auditioning actresses was the build-up to Marcy's sex scene with Paul. In the scene, Marcy is convinced that all the students are doomed and despite Paul's reassurances, she describes their situation as "like being on a plane, when you know it's gonna crash. Everybody around you is screaming 'We're Going Down! We're Going Down!' and all you want to do is grab the person next to you and fuck them, because you know you're going to be dead soon, anyway." Eli Roth and the producers tried to cancel the Marcy auditions, but the general chaos caused by the attacks made it impossible for them to reach many of the actresses who were scheduled to try out for the role. Filming Filming on Cabin Fever began in late 2001 and lasted 24 days, on location in North Carolina.8 Roth originally wanted Cerina Vincent to show her naked buttocks during her sex scene with Rider Strong. Vincent, who had previously played a nude foreign exchange student in Not Another Teen Movie (2001), was afraid that exposing too much of herself would lead to being typecast as a nudity actress and vehemently refused to bare her buttocks. At the peak of this conflict between the two, Vincent told Roth that if he wanted the shot so badly, he would need to re-cast the role with another actress. But they managed to reach a compromise, in which Vincent showed one inch of her buttocks on camera before Roth measured it for it to be precise. Bedsheets were then taped to her backside at the designated level and the scene was filmed. Music Composer Angelo Badalamenti agreed to compose some musical themes for the film out of enthusiasm for the material. However, the bulk of the film's score was composed by Nathan Barr. Some of the music selected for the film was deliberately chosen by Roth for their connection to other horror films; in the opening scene for example, while the main characters are driving to the cabin, "The Road Leads to Nowhere", a song written and recorded for The Last House on the Left (1972), is playing on the radio. Category:Movies